Creating Projects

To create a project, a user must be granted the Manage Collaboration Projects activity right. For general information on activity rights, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Interaction. For information on granting Oracle WebCenter Collaboration activity rights, see Activity Rights.

To create a new project:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Click New, then Project.

Click General Settings.

Decide if you want to base your new project on an existing Project Template.

Note:

After you have created a project, you cannot change the project template.

If you do not, click Create empty project.

If you do, click Create template-based project. Then click Browse. Then choose a project template. Then click Finish.

Under Settings on the left-hand side of the Project Editor, click Functional Areas.

Choose the functional areas you want to include in the project. If a functional area has content associated with it, you cannot hide its tab. For more information on enabling functional areas for a project, see Selecting the Functional Areas for a Project.

Click Finish.

Managing Project Settings

After a Collaboration Project Administrator has created a project, Project Leaders can edit the project's properties and update the access levels and permissions of the project. Project Members and Project Guests with Admin access to the project cannot change project settings.

Editing Project Properties

After a project has been created, Project Leaders can edit the following project properties:

Table 4-1 Descriptions of Project Properties

Project Property

Description

General Settings

Modify basic project settings.

Roles and Permissions

Add and delete portal users, groups, and community members to and from the project.

Set default access levels and permissions for the roles: Project Members and Project Guests.

Manually synchronize the project's user information keep it current with the portal database. By default, Oracle WebCenter Collaboration synchronizes user information with the portal once a day.

Functional Areas

Customize what functional areas are used in the project. If a functional area has content associated with it, you cannot hide its tab.

Adding Users to Projects

This section describes the procedures to control who has access to a project. Oracle WebCenter Collaboration lets you assign users to each of the project roles. Each role has its own set of permissions.

Changing Default Permissions for Roles

Oracle WebCenter Collaboration lets you change the default security settings for Project Members and Project Guests.

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the check box of the project you want to edit.

Click Edit, then Edit Properties.

Click Roles and Permissions.

Click Edit Permissions.

Select the desired access levels.

Click Finish.

Removing Users From Projects

To remove a portal user, group, or community member:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the check box of the project you want to edit.

Choose Edit, then Edit Properties.

Click Roles and Permissions.

Click Delete next to the user, group, or community member you want to remove.

Click OK.

Click Finish.

About Community Members

Community Members are groupings generated by Oracle WebCenter Collaboration and are defined as follows:

Community Managers: Portal users who have either the Admin or the Edit access privilege for a selected community.

Community Members: Portal users who have the Select access privilege for a selected community.

Community Guests: Portal users who have the Read access privilege for a selected community.

On the Roles and Permissions page of the Project Editor, you can add, as a group, Community Managers, Community Members, or Community Guests to a role.

Selecting the Functional Areas for a Project

Project Leaders can select the functional areas to be displayed in a project's application view. If a functional area has content associated with it, you cannot hide its tab. In community projects, if the community portlet corresponding to a functional area is used by the community, you cannot hide the tab for the functional area.

To select the functional areas for a project:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the check box of the project you want to edit.

Click Edit, then Edit Properties.

Click Functional Areas.

Select the check box next to each functional area you want to display in the project application view.

Click OK.

Click Finish.

Managing the Project Application Overview

The Overview tab of a project's application view is composed of modules. Project Leaders can select which modules are displayed and how the modules are arranged on the page.

Project Overview Modules

The following modules are available for use on the Overview tab:

Table 4-2 Descriptions of Project Overview Modules

Module

Description

Project Information

Displays the project name, description, and status.

Announcements

Displays the announcements for the project.

Updated Documents

Displays the five most recently updated documents.

Recent Messages

Displays the five most recently modified messages.

Project Image

Displays an image selected by the Project Leader.

Upcoming Tasks

Displays the next five upcoming tasks.

Project Members

Displays the Project Leaders, Project Members, and Project Guests.

Overdue Tasks

Displays the five most overdue tasks.

If a functional area has been disabled for a project, the corresponding modules cannot be added to the Overview tab. For example, if the Documents tab has been disabled, the Updated Documents module cannot be added to the Overview tab.

To select which modules are displayed in the Overview tab:

Open a project's application view.

On the Overview tab, click Add Module.

Select the modules to display.

Click Finish.

Overview Layout

Project Leaders can choose where the modules are placed on the Overview tab. Any module can be placed in any position. To reposition a module on the page, drag the module to the desired position (by clicking the title bar of the module, holding down the mouse button, and moving the mouse), then release the mouse button. A red dashed line indicates where the module will be placed.

Using Project Explorer

After Collaboration Project Administrators have created and set up projects, you can manage them using the Project Explorer. This section describes the tasks you might must perform to manage projects. The Manage Collaboration Projects activity right is required for all tasks unless otherwise noted.

Creating Project Folders

Users with the Manage Collaboration activity right can organize projects in a hierarchical series of folders and subfolders. To create a new project folder:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Click New, then Project Folder.

Enter the name of the new project folder.

Click Finish.

Moving Projects to Project Folders

To move a project to a project folder:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the project you want to edit.

Click Edit, then Move.

Click Browse.

Choose a project folder.

Click Finish.

Click Finish.

You can use the same procedure to move a project folder to another project folder.

Deleting Projects and Project Folders

Only users with the Manage Collaboration activity right can delete project folders. To delete a project or a project folder:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the check box of the project or project folder to delete.

Click Delete.

Click OK.

Oracle WebCenter Collaboration places deleted projects in the Recycle Bin System Folder, which you use to remove and undelete projects that have been deleted.

To disable a project that you might must access later, you should archive the project instead of delete it. For more information on archiving projects, see Exporting Projects.

Removing and Undeleting Projects from the Recycle Bin System Folder

Oracle WebCenter Collaboration stores deleted projects in the Recycle Bin System Folder. This folder lets you remove and undelete projects that have been deleted.

Projects that are removed from the Recycle Bin System Folder are permanently removed from the system. Projects that are undeleted from the Recycle Bin System Folder are made available to users.

Note:

Oracle WebCenter Collaboration contains two types of recycle bins. Project Leaders use the Project Recycle Bin to remove and restore specific items that were deleted from projects, rather than specific projects.

To remove and restore deleted projects from the Recycle Bin System Folder:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Click the Recycle Bin button in the navigation pane of Project Explorer.

Choose one or more projects in the table pane.

Perform one of the following tasks:

Click Delete.

Click Undelete.

Archiving and Restoring Projects

Collaboration Project Administrators can archive a project to make it inaccessible to project users. When a project is archived, it cannot be searched and notifications referencing it cannot be sent.

Archiving a project lets you remove inactive or completed projects without losing project data. When a project is archived, it is not removed from the Oracle WebCenter Collaboration database. You can restore projects from the Archived Project folder to make them accessible to users.

Archiving Projects

To archive a project:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Select the check box of the project you want to archive.

Click Archive.

Click OK.

The project is moved to the Archived Project folder.

Restoring Projects from the Archived Project Folder

To restore a project from the Archived Project folder:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Click the Archived Project folder.

Click the check box of the project you want to restore.

Click Restore.

Click OK.

The project is restored to top level of the Oracle WebCenter Collaboration folder hierarchy.

Working with Community Projects

The first time a Community Manager adds an Oracle WebCenter Collaboration portlet to a community, a community project with the same name as the community is automatically created. By default, auto-detect is enabled on the Functional Areas page of the Community Project Editor. When this setting is enabled, only the functional areas pertaining to the community portlets that are used in the community are enabled. Project Leaders can choose to disable this setting and manually select which functional areas are displayed for the community project. If a functional area has content associated with it, or if the corresponding community portlet is used in the community, the functional area cannot be disabled.

Working with Project Templates

Project templates facilitate the creation of projects that are similar. Users with the Manage Collaboration Projects activity right can use project templates to maintain consistency among the projects used within an organization.

Creating Project Templates

To create a project template:

Go to the Project Explorer.

Choose the Template Project Folder.

Click New, then Project Template.

Click General Settings.

Decide if you want to base your new project template on an existing one.

If you do not, click Create empty project.

If you do, click Create template-based project. Then click Browse.Then choose the project template you want to use. Then click Finish.

Setting Project Template Base Dates

The dates of tasks, milestones, and events in a project template are not significant on their own; their importance is based on the relative position between the dates in the template and the base date.

When a new project is created from a project template, you specify a project start date. When the tasks, milestones, and events from the project template are copied to the new project, their dates are set relative to the project start date. This process is called date-shifting.

Oracle WebCenter Collaboration lets you specify the following types of date-shifting when creating a project template:

Table 4-3 Types of Date Shifting Methods

Date Shifting Method

Description

Copy dates directly from the project template

This method copies the dates directly from the project template into the new project.

Specify project start day: skip weekends and holidays

This method is used when the number of working days from the start of the project is important.

Specify project start week: preserve day of the week

This method is used when the number of weeks from the start of the project and the day of the week is important.

Specify project start month: preserve working day of the month

This method is used when the number of months from the start of the project and the working day of the month is important.

Defining Security for Project Templates

As with regular projects, project templates are associated with three roles:

Project Leader

Project Member

Project Guest

In a project template, these roles are used to control access in the projects that are created from the template. For example, if a user has the Project Member role on a project template, the user then has the Project Member role on any project created from the template. Project Leaders can modify access levels on projects created from project templates at any time.

It is also necessary to control access to the project template itself. Only users with the Project Leader role on a project template can edit the template. Additionally, only users with the Project Leader role on a project template can create projects from the template. A user must have the Manage Collaboration Projects activity right to manage project templates.

Exporting Projects

The Collaboration Resources page lets Collaboration Administrators choose projects to export, and whether to export either all of their content (including their metadata) or their metadata only. Metadata includes the project's security information and other data such as the project's name, description, date created, and so on.

After you have configured this page and clicked Finish, the system generates .pte and .zip files of the projects. After this process has completed, a dialog box appears that contains a link to the .pte file, which contains portal and Oracle WebCenter Collaboration objects. Click this link to download the .pte file to your computer. The .zip file contains only Oracle WebCenter Collaboration objects.

For Microsoft Windows, the .zip file is located in install_dir\ptcollab\10.3.3\settings\migration\export.

For UNIX/Linux, the .zip file is located in install_dir/ptcollab/10.3.3/settings/migration/export.

To access the Collaboration Resources page:

Click Administration.

From the Select Utility drop-down list, choose Migration - Export.

Under Resources on the left, click Collaboration Resources.

Note:

You cannot use the ptmigration command line tool to create migration packages that contain Oracle WebCenter Collaboration objects.